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The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Girls of the Crystal: A Teatime Interlude
by Regina Magia

C&C by Fred Herriot and Rose Ash

A side story to The End of the Circle: A Tale of the Yizibajohei, by Fred Herriot

Based on characters and situations from The Seventh Carrier, written by Peter Albano; Kantai Collection, created by Kadokawa Games; Kamichu!, created by Kurata Hideyuki, Masunari Kōji and Ochikoshi Tomonori; The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin; Urusei Yatsura, created by Takahashi Rumiko; Sister Princess, created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako; Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika, created by Urobuchi Gen, Shaft and Aniplex; and normalman, created by Jim Valentino.

A café in Mitakihara, the third Wednesday of November in 2012, two hours after supper...

"So what the heck are we doing here, Oriko-chan?"

The genki woman with the ash-blonde hair in a bushy side ponytail blinked before she focused her golden-brown eyes on her current companion. "I received an odd message telling me there was another way to stop Walpurgisnacht." As the brunette teen with gold-brown eyes gasped in disbelief, Mikuni Oriko added in a voice haunted with trepidation, "In that message, I was told that there's a way we could avoid the fate forced on us when we became puella magi."

Kure Kirika blinked as she took that in, her eyes widening with disbelief...before a frown crossed the tomboyish woman's face. "Wait a sec'..." she breathed out, recalling what had just been broadcast wholesale from America late the previous evening; THAT particular world-shattering report had been the first thing covered in the morning news and classes today had been effectively thrown on their ear with the continued broadcast concerning the truth about shipgirls and what had provoked such an incredible phenomena in the first place. "You mean these Yizzy-...?!" the rather eccentric teen then stuttered on that word.

"Yizibajohei," a strange man's voice then declared. "Indeed it does, Kirika Beni."

The two devout childhood friends perked, then turned...

...before they blinked on seeing the couple seated at the table next over gaze knowingly their way, amused smiles on their faces. Both were clearly foreigners, the male of the pair appearing to be their age while his female companion looked to be in her early twenties. And while both were dressed in quite normal clothes, there was something about them...

"You're the ones who sent me the message?" Oriko mused as she held out her hand; given her near-slavish devotion to her, Kirika immediately had thought "threat" when these the admittedly cute boy spoke to them and had moved to transform.

"Indeed we are, Oriko Beni," the red-haired woman said as she offered a card.

The precognitive magical girl nodded her thanks, then gazed at it. Blinking on seeing the odd Mongol-like vertical script written there, she then gasped as said script then morphed, transforming into recognizable katakana characters; even more so, Latin script was written underneath that string of local syllabaries. "'Nu'utam Sibie. Dictum'," she pronounced with a very good accent before she gaped as it hit her. "You're from Yiziba?!" she then exclaimed, then she looked at her companion. "Both of you?!"

Both the Scribe of the Future and the Proud Prince of the Central Kingdom chuckled in amusement. "Please relax, Oriko Beni," Aara'a Wimgusadum said as he produced his own home-made calling card to hand to Kirika. "Good reflexes, by the way," he then added, winking at Oriko's best friend. While Kirika blushed at that honest appraisal, the reborn crown prince of Yiziba's most populous kingdom at the time of the Dawn of Power added, "And yes, Oriko Beni, we both hail from Yiziba. We're 'dressed down' as you can see so as to not attract 'cape otaku' to this meeting. Much that the concept of secret identities as mystery men in the past practised here on Earth went by the wayside back home, I doubt you'd want the Incubators to know of this meeting."

"Don't worry about anyone listening in," Nu'utam added. "Our personal administrative assistant devices are now projecting a 'notice-me-not' field around us to ensure no one can eavesdrop on this conversation."

Hearing that and noting that pretty woman was indicating a familiar-looking paperback book-shaped device — such a device had been shown by one Saeru Hinako to the press at the White House when the Living Spirit of Innocence answered questions about how life on the World of the Forge was like — both local girls relaxed. "Shall we cut to the chase then?" Oriko wondered.

The two who helped start the whole casting drive to save puella magi smiled. "As you wish," Aara'a breathed out.

Oriko and Kirika exchanged looks. "From what I understood of your message, your overall goal is to provide a 'third option' to puella magi like ourselves beyond dying in battle or losing our souls and becoming witches."

Nu'utam held up a warning finger, winking knowingly at the precognitive. "Eldritch witches, Oriko Bene," she emphasized. "Best to distinguish them from the more traditional magical users native to Earth."

"Of course," Oriko affirmed before sipping her tea before she gazed out on the hustling city street outside. "A laudable goal indeed, especially given what we've run into since we were tricked into signing contracts by Kyūbē."

"Can't tell you how many puella magi we've run across who could've been saved if they had a way out," Kirika lamented.

"So those we've helped have told us," Aara'a lamented before nodding his thanks as a waitress came over with slices of tea cake; he could sense that she was an Avalonian, thus wouldn't be affected by his or his friend's PAAs. As soon as said waitress headed off to deal with more customers, the Proud Prince added, "Not long ago, we met a girl named Asako Koito."

Kirika sneered. "She lost her sister Komaki recently. We ran across her killer a month ago. Bitch named Yūki Sasa." Here, the tomboyish magical girl waved to her best friend. "She put Oriko here under her spell for a while..."

"But I was able to free myself from that spell, then confronted Sasa-san with the truth about what happens to people like us," the precognitive finished, closing her eyes. "That...frightened her greatly."

"What happened to her?" the Future Scribe asked.

"She crushed her soul-gem," Kirika answered shaking her head. "It killed both the witch in it and her as well."

"As Itō Yoiko-taisa would undoubtedly say it, Sasa-san atoned for her sins with her suicide," Oriko added. Given the recent salvage-and-Gifting of the famous battleship Yamato into Itō Yasuko very early that morning the hometown of the famous living arahitokami Hitotsubashi Yurie — that had been the second big item covered in this morning's news broadcasts beyond the great revelation concerning the truth of many metahumans, shipgirls included, over the past decade — the precognitive added, "Sadly, though, Komaki-san wasn't Sasa-san's first victim. A girl named Hitomi Lina came to Mitakihara seeking Sasa-san out..."

"Poor girl wanted the bitch's head on a pike for killing a member of Lina-san's team over in Kazamino," Kirika spoke up as her friend's voice faltered. "Sasa made Lina-san burn out her soul gem and she turned into a witch." The dark-haired tomboy then perked. "Hey, what's that term you guys use for the bad guys in those fight scenes...?"

"Heel," Aara'a supplied. "And while it wouldn't have been a good idea to see Sasa Bene actually Gifted..."

"...there are those who followed in Tariko-san's footsteps who would have seen her saved that way," Oriko finished.

"Unfortunately so," Nu'utam affirmed with a nod.

"Fuck!" Kirika spat out. "There actually ARE...?!"

"Worry about that later, Kirika-chan," Oriko cut in, making her friend immediately clam up. "Based on all I've heard and sensed — both with my powers and from that briefing at the White House that Saeru Hinako-chan and Ashikaga Akemi-chūsa were involved in at Bartlet-daitōryō's invitation — I don't see any potential drawbacks at being Gifted. I do have a question, though."

"Please, ask," Nu'utam urged.

"What happens to the witches in mine and Kirika-chan's soul gems?"

"They'd be separated to become their own beings. In effect, you'd get twin sisters," Aara'a then explained before bringing his PAA over, tapping the crystal on the screen. "Look at this picture. It's dated from last week."

Both girls looked. "That's Sakura Kyōko-chan," Kirika noted. "Who's that girl? I heard she's an orphan."

"Her transformed witch-self, in effect," the Proud Prince explained. "I don't know of her name before she was given her new body, but she calls herself Sakura Nakami now. Kyōko Bolem is now R'buohuo; Longinus as she calls herself is here. Nakami Bolem became Fyuodam after being separated from her other-self; she elected on the Terran name Propane."

"Damn! Instant mystery men!" Kirika quipped.

Nu'utam then winked. "And yes, girls, your witch-selves — Sotria Bene and Latria Bene — would be separated from you upon your Giftings and become their own people. You should think of proper names to given them when they become your sisters."

The two magical girls exchanged knowing looks, then they giggled. "That would be easy, I think," Oriko noted as she tented her fingers. "So, one last question: How DOES one become like Hinako-chan?"

Their new friends from the World of the Forge exchanged looks. "The fastest option is taking you to Yiziba to touch the Great Crystal directly," Aara'a then explained. "However, due to you not having the amount of background mesonium in your blood as a native-born Yizibajohei possesses naturally, a 'pre-Gifting' process was devised by Tariko Katabarbe Bolem's late mother to help boost one's internal mesonium levels to where a direct mental link is forged."

"Hinako-chan's elder sister, you mean?" Kirika noted, nodding in understanding.

"She's called 'Tuyuki' on Yiziba, said 'Coyote' here," Oriko added. "So how does Tariko-san do it?"

Nu'utam shrugged. "A type of sweet she calls a black forest cake, grown with..."

"Sold!"

That was Kirika, who held up her hand as if she was answering a teacher's question in class. The four exchanged looks before laughter escaped them all. "Perhaps that would be the best way to do it," Oriko then stated after they calmed down and sipped their tea. "Kirika-chan and I'll see if we can sway any other puella magi to doing as we did. Hopefully WITHOUT revealing the truth behind their 'contracts'." Here, the precognitive sighed. "We don't want to risk them succumbing to despair..."

"Or kill themselves like that bitch Yūki did," her best friend sourly noted...

To Be Continued...!

EDITOR'S NOTES

This short is set around Part 33 of the main story. This particular story looks at characters from the spin-off manga Puella Magi Oriko Magika, first published in 2011-2012. This short also brings back Nu'utam Sibie (Dictum) and Aara'a Wimgusadum (Exemplar), who instigated the "casting drive" concerning puella magi in Part One of this series.

This short also shows how the basic Yizibajohei honorifics Beni ("princess", used for non-Gifted women) and Bolem ("lady", used for Gifted women) are used; this also applies to the male equivalents Nelo ("prince", used for non-Gifted men) and Tene ("lord", used for Gifted men). Like the rough English equivalents "Miss" and "Ms", both can be used with a person's full name, family name only and even given-name only. As with Oriental honorifics, they follow the name in speech, not precede it.

The press briefing at the White House in Washington DC involving Saeru Hinako (Suiki) and Ashikaga Akemi (THG Akebono) which was mentioned here was shown in Part 29 of the main story. The salvage of Itō Yasuko (THG Yamato) in the hometown of Hitotsubashi Yurie (the star of Kamichu!) was depicted in Part 30.